Some residents of Taba village walk over a section of the ground crack that was filled with stones along the
Natete-Taba-Chihe-Kamonyi community road in Kisoro District. PHOTO/ROBERT MUHEREZA
People living on the foothills of Burango hill in Taba village, Nyakinama sub-county in Kisoro district are living in fear of a possible catastrophe because of a giant crack in the ground.
The crack that occurred in September 2022 during heavy rains, destroying houses and property in the area, has not been investigated by government geologists to establish its actual cause.
Devota Busingye, a mother of six, is among the people whose houses were destroyed. To-date, she is still struggling to find roofing materials for a new house she built just opposite the site where her old house once stood.
“We are worried of a possible repeat of the incident because since then, the government has never told us what caused it. We need to be advised on how to prepare ourselves for a crack in the ground to avoid losses in case it happens again during this rainy season. We have remained in this place because we do not have other pieces of land,” she says.
Francis Tabaro Ndimo, the LC1 chairman for Taba village, says the village has so far experienced two cracks in the ground. Currently, he is looking for land in another village on which he can shift his family.
“Ten houses were destroyed by the ground crack and the Natete-Taba-Chihe-Kamonyi community road was cut off. District authorities repaired the damaged spot three months after the incident. They visited the area and supported the affected families with some food relief items despite the urgent need of supporting them with building materials,” he says.
The 64-year-old says his village, which lies on the banks of Lake Mutanda, has a population of 700. He adds that since the incident occurred, no one has convened a community meeting to tell the village what caused the ground crack.
Government indifference
Charles Bigira Kamuhanda, the LCIII chairman for Nyakinama sub-county, calls on the government to deploy a team of geologists to investigate whether the crack in the ground is related to earth movement or volcanic eruptions that are common in the Virunga Mountain ranges in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
“We suspect that there was a force from underground that caused this crack and in case it is an earth movement or an impending volcanic eruption, it may be fatal this time round if it is not detected early enough. As leaders, we also appeal to the government to find alternative pieces of land on which the affected people can be relocated for the safety of their lives and property,” he says.
A section of the Kabale-Kisoro-Rwanda/ DR Congo Road collapsed at Hamurwa Village, Hamurwa Town Council in Rubanda District in 2023 due to mudslides. PHOTO/FILE/ROBERT MUHEREZA
Undetected landslides in the recent past turned fatal in Bududa district in eastern Uganda. Similarly, an undetected calamity turned fatal in Kiteezi, in Kampala City, in August this year when a landfill crashed leading to several deaths.
“The fact that the village is on the shores of Lake Mutanda makes the situation more risky because in case the ground crack extends to the lake, the whole village may get submerged,” Kamuhanda laments.
Vincent Mudanga, Kisoro district’s natural resources officer, explains that earth openings or fixtures in the area are caused by a prehistoric dormant state of earth plates.
“The incident could have been caused by an earth movement due to a slight earthquake that led to the drifting of tectonic plates underneath the surface. Some areas in the district are in a dormant volcanic state. The fact that the ground crack in Taba village was sliding towards Lake Mutanda can be interpreted as a sliding of the rock bed in the area,” he says.
Lake Mutanda is located on the foothills of the Virunga mountain ranges that are composed of eight major mountains. Only two of the mountains – Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira – are active, with recent eruptions occurring in 2006, 2010 and 2021.
On February 2, 2023, the Kisoro district disaster committee chairman, Manasseh Rukundo, who doubles as the assistant chief administrative officer for Kisoro district local government, wrote to the permanent secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) requesting for technical support to conduct a comprehensive geotechnical assessment on the ground crack.
Rukundo also requested OPM to facilitate the safe temporal relocation of the eight households that were most at high risk. Unfortunately, the OPM has never responded to the letter.
“This is a matter of environmental concern and during our council meeting, a minute will be passed to remind the OPM about the tragic incident,” says Amos Hakizimana, the Kisoro district council speaker.
Kisoro District Chairman Abel Bizimana. PHOTO/ROBERT MUHEREZA
The Kisoro district LCV chairman, Abel Bizimana, says the OPM’s lack of response is baffling given that it has technocrats and resources at its disposal to carry out a comprehensive study.
“We only see the government in Kisoro district during the election season and after the exercise is complete, the government officials disappear. The crack in the ground should have been an eye opener to everyone concerned,” he says.
Similar cracks in Eastern Uganda
In September, Monitor reported that residents of seven villages in Kapchorwa district were on edge after Kacitya rock developed cracks which split it into two.
Stephen Chelimo, the chairperson of Siron Ward in Kapchorwa Municipality, said the cracks were narrow but for the past four years, have been enlarging, causing a lot of fear about the rock’s collapse.
“We have alerted our leadership about the looming disaster but you know our leaders prefer responding after the disaster has occurred,” Chelimo said at the time.
Francis Tweluk, the chairperson of Kacitya village, which got its name from the rock, said they had requested the government to blast the rock, in vain.
“We have reported but there is no action taken. We have lost animals and children have also sustained injuries while trying to jump over the cracks to their schools,” he said at the time.
Two years ago, a sediment separated from the rock, rolled down, and rested about 100 meters from its original position after a heavy downpour. It nearly destroyed homes.
Experts take
Aminah Mayole, a geologist and committee member for digital transformations in the Geological Society of Uganda (GSU), says cracks in the ground herald mudslides, landslides or rock falls.
“Last year, I undertook a study in the Elgon region, specifically in the districts of Bulambuli, Sironko, and Bududa. We discovered that there is a high hydrogeological potential in the area. That means there is a lot of ground water. So, because the place is hilly, and the hydrogeological potential is high, when they receive a lot of rainfall, the stones move apart,” she says.
She adds that the cracks in the ground in the Elgon region are not caused by tectonic activity.
“Mt Elgon is dormant so there is light tectonic movement in the area. What we know is that the soil are settled on an igneous rock. The high-water potential beneath them makes them lose, so they easily crack,” Mayole adds.
Traffic flow on Kabale –Lake Bunyonyi road was last year paralysed after mud slides blocked the road at Kiyora Cell in Kabale District. Several tourists, passenger vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians are stranded by the road side. PHOTO/FILE/ROBERT MUHEREZA
Uganda's Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja visits the scene of a landslide triggered by heavy rain that buried dozens of homes across several villages in Bulambuli district, Uganda November 29, 2024.
An igneous rock, also known as magmatic rock, is a type of rock that forms when lava cools and solidifies.
However, in the case of Kisoro, the geologist says the crack in the ground could have been brought on by the poor land use practices in the area.
“Some people do not know how to grow crops on ranges or hilly areas. They do not know how to create terraces. They use poor farming techniques so when it rains heavily, everything is washed away in a mudslide and the ground cracks,” Mayole explains.
She adds that from her study, the respondents informed her team that whenever the cracks occur, they herald a landslide or rock fall in the near future.
Way forward
In 2023, landslides killed 12 people in Kisoro district and destroyed property and farms.
Dr. Jennifer Turyatemba Tumushabe, a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Science, Kabale University, says that conducting geotechnical surveys, implementing soil conservation practices, regulating groundwater extractions, managing vegetation to stabilise soils, and the use of early–warning systems in areas prone to seismic activity are some of the measures that can be used in preventing ground cracks.
“While the general natural causes of ground cracks include geological activity such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tectonic movements, the specific causes include seismic activity like the movement along fault lines during earthquakes can create significant ground fissures, soil shrinkage, volcanic activity, and deforestation,” she says.
Dr. Turyatemba adds that immediate precautions include staying away from the crack and its surroundings, as the ground may be unstable and prone to further collapse or expansion.
When asked about the delayed investigation on the ground crack in Taba village, Dunstan Balaba, OPM’s permanent secretary, promised to get back to this reporter. However, by the time we went to press, he had not yet provided feedback despite several reminders.
